Can you help save Zoe’s life?

The family of a sick schoolgirl in need of a bone marrow transplant have launched an appeal to find a suitable donor.

Zoe Gilbert has a life-threatening form of aplastic anaemia. Doctors believe a bone marrow transplant is the best cure, but have so far failed to find a match.

Zoe, who loves football and swimming, was referred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital after having 10 nose bleeds in just two weeks.

The condition involves the bone marrow failing to reproduce red and white blood cells and platelets, which prevent bruising, robbing Zoe of her immune system.

The Impington Village College student has to have blood and platelet transfusions every week, spending days at a time in hospital.

Meanwhile staff at Addenbrooke’s and the Anthony Nolan charity, which manages the UK bone marrow register, have failed to find a suitable match worldwide.

Doctors are currently treating Zoe with anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) – an infusion of horse antibodies. However, it will be four months before Zoe will learn whether this has been successful and it is not without its own risks.

Her mum Elizabeth Gilbert, of Impington, who is recovering from a hip replacement, said: “We have said can we wait for a marrow donation, but they said we need to do the treatment now. It’s very difficult at the moment not knowing what will happen.

“My biggest fear is it not working and having to go through it again.”

Dr Michael Gattens, consultant paediatric haematologist at Addenbrooke’s, said that during her three weeks in hospital Zoe would be kept in isolation and closely monitored for infections, which “in many cases can be fatal”.

He said: “Ideally bone marrow is the best option but without a match we use ATG.

“It is a pretty intensive treatment and can result in serum sickness but we can only carry out marrow transplants if we have a perfect match – it is essential for this condition, otherwise it won’t work. For most people, a transplant is a long-term solution. Occasionally, many years down the line, people relapse.”

Elizabeth added that a bone marrow transplant would “secure Zoe’s life” and urged people to join the register today.

She said: “Even if we don’t find a match, they could save other people’s lives.”

Family members are not necessarily compatible. Surprisingly, it is more likely that a complete stranger will be an exact match.

3 comments

If you are more than 30, you can also register at the NHS bone marrow registry at http://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/bonemarrow/
I find it shocking that the Anthony Nolan trust have lowered their age limits for donation so dramatically without also advertising the fact that the NHS register will accept people up to the age of 49.
Best wishes to Zoe and fingers crossed for a match soon.

The Anthony Nolan trust isn't the only way to register as a potential bone marrow donor. If you visit http://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/bonemarrow/ you can see you can join that register if you are between 18 and 49 - a much wider age range than Anthony Nolan say. If, like most healthy adults in that age range, you are already a blood donor, it's really easy to sign up - ask for a leaflet next time you donate blood, and they just take a couple of extra sample phials which are submitted to the registry. That's how I signed up - it's extremely easy. And if it does turn out you're a match, it's much easier to do the donation now than it used to be. You're hooked up to a machine, a bit like platelet donors, and it filters out stem cells from your circulating blood. What an easy way for you to save a life like Zoe's!